ul vault, I began to consider the circumstances in
which I found myself. In the first place I was now a rich man, and if it
pleased me to go back to Norfolk with my wealth, as Fonseca had pointed
out, my prospects were fair indeed. But the oath that I had taken hung
like lead about my neck. I had sworn to be avenged upon de Garcia, and
I had prayed that the curse of heaven might rest upon me till I was so
avenged, but in England living in peace and plenty I could scarcely come
by vengeance. Moreover, now I knew where he was, or at least in what
portion of the world I might seek him, and there where white men are few
he could not hide from me as in Spain. This tidings I had gained from
the doomed lady, and I have told her story at some length because it
was through it and her that I came to journey to Hispaniola, as it was
because of the sacrifice of her tormentor, Father Pedro, by the priests
of the Otomie that I am here in England this day, since had it not been
for that sacrifice the Spaniards would never have stormed the City of
Pines, where, alive or dead, I should doubtless have been to this hour;
for thus do seeming accidents build up the fates of men. Had those words
never passed Isabella's lips, doubtless in time I should have wearied
of a useless search and sailed for home and happiness. But having heard
them it seemed to me, to my undoing, that this would be to play the
part of a sorry coward. Moreover, strange as it may look, now I felt
as though I had two wrongs to avenge, that of my mother and that of
Isabella de Siguenza. Indeed none could have seen that young and lovely
lady die thus terribly and not desire to wreak her death on him who had
betrayed and deserted her.

So the end of it was that being of a stubborn temper, I determined to do
violence to my own desires and the dying counsels of my benefactor, and
to follow de Garcia to the ends of the earth and there to kill him as I
had sworn to do.

First, however, I inquired secretly and diligently as to the truth of
the statement that de Garcia had sailed for the Indies, and to be brief,
having the clue, I discovered that two days after the date of the duel I
had fought with him, a man answering to de Garcia's description, though
bearing a different name, had shipped from Seville in a carak bound for
the Canary Islands, which carak was there to await the arrival of the
fleet sailing for Hispaniola. Indeed from various circumstances I had
little doubt th